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Pastimes : Clown-Free Zone... sorry, no clowns allowed -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Real Man who wrote (334255)	4/25/2007 10:22:28 AM
From: MythMan	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 436258

those are and were rummy countries. We have our issues but we're not rummy.

To: Real Man who wrote (334255)	4/26/2007 6:32:04 PM
From: Pacing The Cage	Respond to of 436258

"most recently in former Yugoslavia, Turkey and Zimbabwe" Zimbabwe inflation soars to 2,200 percent Apr 26 12:24 PM US/Eastern Zimbabwe, already battling to contain the world's highest rate of inflation, announced on Thursday that the figure had soared once more to 2,200 percent. After the official announcement of the rate for March was twice postponed earlier this month, central bank governor Gideon Gono confirmed the figure had crashed through the 2,000 percent barrier for the first time after rising by another 470 percentage points from the 1,730 percent mark for February. "Year-on-year inflation which stood at 1,072.2 percent in October rose to 11,281.1 percent in December and has risen to to 2,200 percent by March," Gono said in a televised statement. "Inflation pressures are seen remaining high," Gono said, calling for a collective effort to tame the "inflation dragon". "It's imperative to note that the inflation dragon is as much determined by collective mindsets of all of us as it is by monetary aggregates or what is called money supply growth. "As Zimbabweans, we must therefore think and act positively avoiding the daily enterprise of scheming the downfall of the economy as a getaway to any objective." Gono has compared inflation in Zimbabwe to the AIDS pandemic and the latest figure further undermines a prediction by then finance minister Herbert Murerwa in December that it would fall to around 300 percent by the end of 2007. Best Doroh, an economist with Harare-based ZB Financial Holdings, said all the evidence pointed to the prospect of an even bigger figure by the end of the year. "It is difficult to say what the rate will be by year end but it certainly won't be anywhere near what these guys had initially predicted," he told AFP. John Robertson, a Harare-based independent economist, predicted that the rate could almost double by the end of the year. "At the rate at which things are moving, inflation will surpass 4,000 percent by year end because the government is printing money and the central bank was recently buying foreign currency on the parrallel market," he said. "Things will get worse unless there is a change of policy," he added Zimbabwe's economy has been on a downturn over the past seven years with four in every five persons out of work and perennial shortages of commodities like sugar, cooking oil and fuel in the one-time bread basket of Africa. Over 80 percent of the population is living below the poverty threshold often skipping meals or cycling or walking long distances to work in order to stretch their wages. The government blames the economic crisis on targetted sanctions imposed on veteran President Robert Mugabe and members of his inner circle by the United States and the European Union following presidential polls in 2002 which the opposition and western observers charged were rigged. Part of the problem is a desperate lack of foreign currency with the Zimbabwean dollar only fetching a fraction at official rates as on the thriving black market. In his address, Gono effectively devalued the currency for exporters and those holding foreign exchange by 99 percent in a move seen as an attempt to increase the inflows of foreign currency. Shying away from calling it devaluation, Gono said the rate at which foreign currency account holders can sell their foreign cash would be 60 times higher. Before the devaluation, the Zimbabwean dollar had been trading at around 25,000 to the greenback, against the official rate of 250 dollars. breitbart.com